Lawmakers Rush to Meet Legislative Deadline

In lay terms, the “House of Origin” deadline means bills need to pass out of the house where they were originally introduced, either the Assembly or the Senate, by this Friday. Bills still in consideration include measures relating to guns, medical marijuana, minimum wage and many more.

Republican Assemblyman Don Wagner says he would have preferred some different bills make it to the floor of the Democratically controlled Assembly. Still, he says it’s going to be a frantic week.

“I was told today there’s something like 350 bills that we’ll have to take up next week,” he says. “And unfortunately when you have that many bills, it’s very hard to give them the consideration that they deserve on the floor. There just isn’t time.”

But Democratic Assemblywoman Toni Atkins says lawmakers have had time to learn about the bills through committee hearings. And she says some bills inevitably take on a high profile.

“The bills that are, maybe what you might perceive to be more controversial or harder, those are getting a lot of attention,” she says. “People know. People come in, stake holders, community groups, come in to tell us what they think of those. Not just in the Capitol, but in our district offices.”

Atkins says lawmakers know what to expect and prepare for this time of year.